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Date:      Wed, 10 May 2000 23:41:31 -0700
From:      "Michael MacKinnon" <mackinnon.m@home.com>
To:        "Harry Woodward-Clarke" <Harry.Woodward-Clarke@s1.com>
Cc:        <questions@FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject:   Install Troubles
Message-ID:  <015801bfbb13$f1841080$92597318@rct1.bc.wave.home.com>
References:  <Pine.BSF.4.10.10005072250560.77608-100000@home.offwhite.net> <000f01bfb8be$67490940$92597318@rct1.bc.wave.home.com> <39174A35.7FC8F4B6@S1.com>

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Hi there,

I've been having no end of troubles installing FreeBSD 3.1
(that's what I've got on CD).
The install seems to either panic and / or reboot during the
newfs command to set up the hard drive's file system.

Any Ideas?

Thanks
Mike.

Details follow:

My System:
 Celeron 466
 Award BIOS
 32MB RAM
generic S3 video card (AGP)
 10 Gig Western Digital HD [Master for controller 0]
 ATAPI CD-ROM / DVD player (Pioneer) [Slave for controller 0]
Controller 1 is empty
3.5" floppy

Details on my install:

BIOS setup:
- I set the hd to use Normal (C/H/S: 19885/16/63)(because that
seems the specs that it sees when the kernal is configured). the
CD-Rom is set to auto.
- I've tried all the obvious hard drive related settings, and tried them
both enabled and disabled to no avail. This setup i've got them in their
default
state.
-I've set the BIOS so that it boots to CD-ROM.

FreeBSD 3.1 Install
1. I start screen in Visual Mode (as advised by the Walnut Creek
install instructions)
2. Configure Kernel: I delete all the SCSI, tape backup, CDROM, network
card,
and ps2 mouse drivers from the list. I Quit and agree to save my settings
3. some config stuff flashes by (detailed below) and I'm left at the
sysInstall Main Menu.
The config stuff seems to indicate that all my hardware is recognized.
Everything seems
fine except maybe:
a) My Hard Drive shows up with the correct Cyllinder/Head/Sector info, but
the
size is off. Instead of 10,000+ MB, only 9787MB are indicated. Is this a
problem?
b) My CD-Rom shows up fine, except the transfer rate is listed as 0kb/sec.
I'm
guessing this info is just for me?
4. I select "Novice" from the sysinstall menu (as advised by the WC install
notes).
5. I select OK for the message that tells me I'll have to partition my disk
6. Because the geometry is different here (it's listed at the top of the
screen as
c/h/s = 1247/255/63), I change it to match my bios settings.
7. In the disk slice screen, I select All and allow for a 'cooperative
partition'
which separates the first 63 sectors from the main partition.
8. I set the second slice to be bootable and Quit.
9. A screen pops up asking what type of boot manager I want. I choose to
have
no boot manager (a standard MBR).
10. After dismissing the message dialog, I'm at the partition screen and
accept the
option A, which sets up defaults ( '/' with 32MB, swap with 69MB, '/var'
with 30MB,
and '/usr' with the rest at 9655MB). I Quit to save.
11. Now I get to choose the type of install. I select 'Minimal', as I'm just
trying to
get the thing to work. I'll choose a more heavy duty select later, after
I've managed
to get one successful install. Then I Exit.
12. I choose CDRom as the source for the install.
13. I agree to the install (the last "Are you sure?" message) and the system
starts
to set up the file system (I see some "newfs -b 8192 -f 1024"s flash accross
the
screen.
14. With an Alt-F2, I can look at some of the output:
[ a few debug statements about scanning for slices ]
/dev/rwd0s1a: XXX sectors... 32MB  [appears to set up the root partition
fine, I think.]
[there's a line about superblock backups at 32]
DEBUG: MakeDev: Unknown major / minor for devtype
[???? what's this one?]
[ a few lines of /mnt/dev... (about 20+?)]
0 blocks
Warning 320 sectors in last cyllinder unallocated
/mnt/dev/rwd0s1f: XXXX sectors... 9655MB
[ there didn't appear to be any mention of the other partitions...
unless they were hidden in the long list of "/mnt/dev/..."s]
[ then it talks about superblock backups and lists about 40 lines
of 6-7 digit numbers (sectors?)]
then it reboots!

If I leave the CD in, I go back to the install.
If I take the CD out, I get:
>FreeBSD i386 BOOT
Default: 0: wd(0,a)/kernel
boot:
No /kernel

Other things I have tried:
- Tried using 2 other hard drives: a Maxtor 4Gig, and a
Maxtor 400Mb; fails.
- Tried using the machine to install Windows 98 (on the
4gig drive); works.
Tried Linux on all three drives; fails.


After all that, any ideas?
Any other info needed?

Thanks,
Mike



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